Index: src/com/ecyrd/jspwiki/auth/AuthorizationManager.java
===================================================================
RCS file: /p/cvs/JSPWiki/src/com/ecyrd/jspwiki/auth/AuthorizationManager.java,v
retrieving revision 1.49
diff -u -r1.49 AuthorizationManager.java
--- src/com/ecyrd/jspwiki/auth/AuthorizationManager.java	1 Jun 2007 05:39:17 -0000	1.49
+++ src/com/ecyrd/jspwiki/auth/AuthorizationManager.java	23 Nov 2007 15:10:26 -0000
@@ -405,10 +405,22 @@
         try
         {
             URL policyURL = AuthenticationManager.findConfigFile( engine, DEFAULT_POLICY );
-            File policyFile = new File( policyURL.getPath() );
-            m_localPolicy = new LocalPolicy( policyFile, engine.getContentEncoding() );
-            m_localPolicy.refresh();
-            log.info("Initialized local security policy: " + policyFile.getAbsolutePath());
+            if (policyURL != null) 
+            {
+                File policyFile = new File( policyURL.getPath() );
+                m_localPolicy = new LocalPolicy( policyFile, engine.getContentEncoding() );
+                m_localPolicy.refresh();
+                log.info("Initialized local security policy: " + policyFile.getAbsolutePath());
+            }
+            else
+            {
+                StringBuffer sb = new 
+                    StringBuffer("Unable to locate default jspwiki.policy (WEB-INF/jspwiki.policy) file. ");
+                sb.append("Please ensure that the jspwiki.policy file exists in the default location. ");
+                sb.append("This file should exist regardless of the existance of a global policy file. ");
+                sb.append("The global policy file is identified by the java.security.policy variable.");
+                log.error(sb.toString());
+            }
         }
         catch ( PolicyException e )
         {